Second Languages

The window for acquiring a new language stretches almost until adulthood–longer than previously believed, finds a study in Cognition. Nearly 670,000 participants took a grammar quiz through a Facebook app. About 246,000 were native English speakers and 424,000 had learned English as a second language. Participants also answered questions about their ages, the age at which they began learning English and where they learned it. The researchers found that on average, only those who began learning English before age 10 achieved native proficiency. However, the ability to learn grammar remained strong until about age 17, at which point it began to decline steadily. (Monitor on Psychology)